It is well known to provide vibration and shock isolators for buildings and other structures to absorb at least part of the energy due to an earthquake to prevent structural damage. Isolators generally are designed to carry a particular vertical load and to resist a particular horizontal displacement of the supported building or structure. Conventional isolators are typically manufactured to satisfy these particular requirements; thus, for use with buildings of different sizes and during earthquakes of different intensities, many different sizes of isolators must be manufactured and be available in stock so as to to satisfy the various requirements.
It is expensive to stock such a large number of vibration and shock isolators. Also, it is possible that large numbers of stock isolators will be manufactured and never be used because of the lack of demand for them. Because of the expense and inconvenience of stocking a large number of isolators of different sizes, a need exists for a solution to this problem to minimize the expense yet provide isolators especially adapted for specific isolation requirements for buildings and other structures.